Tarzan knife

Doug C

Doug C

Joined
Mar 15, 2005
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Johnny Weismuller variety,Tarzan.Anybody around here old enough to remember the wood handled fixed blade.I know he dispatched at least 3 crocs and one rather large shark with it.Just wonderin' if anyone remembers this knife? Was it a "prop",custom,production. Thanks! :D
 
Great clip! Apparently the poor feller ended his days thinking he WAS Tarzan.

Didn't the knife have a leather wrap handle? Maybe I'm thinking of a different Tarzan.
 
The first Tarzan book that Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote was "Tarzan of the Apes". As we all know, Tarzan was raised from an infant by the apes. Later on he comes across the jungle cabin where his parents lived where he found their skeletons, books, etc.

From Chapter six -

"Among other things he found a sharp hunting knife, on the keen blade of which he immediately proceeded to cut his finger. Undaunted he continued his experiments, finding that he could hack and hew splinters of wood from the table and chairs with this new toy."

So there you have it, LB. It was his Dad's knife and he not only cut himself with it, he chopped up the furniture. A true knife knut.;)
 
Thomason said:
From Chapter six -

"Among other things he found a sharp hunting knife, on the keen blade of which he immediately proceeded to cut his finger. Undaunted he continued his experiments, finding that he could hack and hew splinters of wood from the table and chairs with this new toy."
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It must have been some very early high-tech stainless to have survived the jungle humidity so well. :)
 
:thumbup: Rob,oregon,everyone,thanks! Apparently it is leather handled.I clearly remember JW holding on to the shark's fin with his left hand,stabbing it dead with his right. :eek:
 
maybe he found a jungle TUF-CLOTH to protect his knife!:D i think a couple weeks ago best-buy had a set of JW Tarzan movies on dvd for sale at a pretty good price!:)
 
The knives used in the Weissmuller Tarzan flicks were props. There was a collapsible one, one made from wood and painted to look like the real thing and one made from sponge rubber. In a book I have from 1988, there is an article on movie knives. In this article it states that at that in 1988 it was not known if there ever actually was a real knife used in those movies.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
In this article it states that at that in 1988 it was not known if there ever actually was a real knife used in those movies.
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Grrr ... then HOW did he KILL all those ANIMALS !!! ??? :grumpy:


:p
 
leatherbird said:
Johnny Weismuller variety,Tarzan.Anybody around here old enough to remember the wood handled fixed blade.I know he dispatched at least 3 crocs and one rather large shark with it.Just wonderin' if anyone remembers this knife? Was it a "prop",custom,production. Thanks! :D
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leatherbird,i remeber an article[not old enough to remember jonny w] in either the Knives annuals or Gun Digest Book of knives about movie knives.jonny w was pictured in the tarzan diapers with the leading lady.it was made,i think, by the props dept.i'll check
 
Regardless of the knife; prop or otherwise.....they were great movies to a kid growing up in the 50's and 60's. And like Sean Connery as 007; Weismuller was THE Tarzan.
 
tim8557 said:
Regardless of the knife; prop or otherwise.....they were great movies to a kid growing up in the 50's and 60's. And like Sean Connery as 007; Weismuller was THE Tarzan.
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i did'nt grow up in the 50's or 60's but i second the sean connery 007.
 
Im watching the movie now. It's a real steel knife, chromed, shiny, with exotic material grip and shiny nickel looking butt cap. Resembles a Randall fighter but longer, slimmer and heavier, very custom.
 
JW Tarzan movies were actually the cause of why I have loved knives since I was little. I liked knives even earlier than guns. Sorry, OT.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
It must have been some very early high-tech stainless to have survived the jungle humidity so well. :)
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In the book it most certainly was not stainless. When he found the knife, it had been in his parent's cabin for some years, wrapped in an oil cloth, IIRC. The day he found it, he used it to defend himself against an ape who attacked him. He was mauled in the process and dropped the knife in the grass. After healing, he went back to find the knife and discovered that it had rusted, but was still functional. (The fine details are a bit fuzzy. I've not read the book since the 60's. But I do remember the rusting.)



Esav Benyamin said:
I got the set on a sale from J&R Music World. Maureen O'Sullivan was a piece.
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Don't remember which one, but in one of the very early Tarzan movies, Jane's costume was pretty skimpy. HUBBA HUBBA.
 
Jefrois said:
Im watching the movie now. It's a real steel knife, chromed, shiny, with exotic material grip and shiny nickel looking butt cap. Resembles a Randall fighter but longer, slimmer and heavier, very custom.
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Op has been waiting for that info since 2005 !
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Hi DC ! :)

1234,,,,,,,:D
 
knarfeng said:
Don't remember which one, but in one of the very early Tarzan movies, Jane's costume was pretty skimpy. HUBBA HUBBA.
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Actually, Jane's costume was not at all: there was a nude underwater swimming scene in Tarzan and His Mate (the movie was made in 1934, before Hays office censorship took place) that was cut after protest. O'Sullivan didn't do the scene, or did, depending upon rumor that you want to believe. The most commonly accepted one is that it was done by an Olympic gold medalist, Josephine McKim, because it was thought that she was more graceful underwater than O'Sullivan and would appeal more to audiences. The scene was restored in the 1990s when it was discovered in the TCM vaults, and has been shown on TCM. I've seen it, and it does include full frontal nudity, but taken from such a distance that it's really pretty blurry.

As an aside, pre-Hays Code Hollywood films were very daring in theme, language, adult situations, and nudity, and it took Hollywood until the 60s to catch back up with them, at least in the nudity deparment. Hollywood still hasn't caught up (and probably never will, given the level of intelligence in today's movie audiences and what they would and would not pay to see) with the sophisticated plots of many of the films made between 1930 and 1934, when the Code took effect and established the rating system used until 1968.

See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025862/trivia for info on the nude scene and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code#Pre-Code_Hollywood:_1930_to_1934 for information on the "pre-Code" era.
 
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